This section is intended to merely provide background for embodiments of the present invention and is not considered prior art in the claims.
With the development of mobile communication networks and the advance in terminal specifications, mobile communication terminals have become the necessity for modern people and have evolved into total entertainment equipment beyond typical simple communication devices or information providing devices.
Such mobile communication terminals have a function for performing short-range wireless communication, such as near field communication (NFC) or Bluetooth, in addition to a communication function through mobile communication networks.
NFC has a short communication distance and requires a separate wireless communication chip. However, Bluetooth has a relatively long communication distance and most terminals have a Bluetooth communication function equipped therein. Thus, various communication services are being developed using Bluetooth.
Further, service solutions for providing a variety of information to mobile communication terminals possessed by users are being developed using a beacon that utilizes Bluetooth communication.
In this case, a mobile communication terminal receives a corresponding beacon identifier from a beacon and uses the beacon identifier to acquire a variety of information.
Recently, beacon devices are installed in stores such as a coffee shop, a department store, or the like. Accordingly, when a user with a terminal, such as a smartphone or tablet, equipped with a function of sensing identities (IDs) of beacon signals transmitted by beacon devices enters a corresponding place, the terminal senses an ID of a beacon signal and receives various kinds of services through a communication network using the sensed ID.
However, if a beacon device is installed in a store, the beacon device may be stolen and reused for another purpose. Furthermore, although the beacon device is not stolen, a beacon signal transmitted by the beacon device may not be controlled and thus service users in the vicinity of the beacon device may have difficulties in that they may receive service information irrelevant to their locations.